Attention Dark Shadows fans: David Selby, remembered fondly as the romantic heartthrob Quentin Collins on that long-running soap of yore, is playing Abraham Lincoln in a new play, The Heavens Are Hung In Black, at Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.

Selby has played Lincoln twice before. But this time, he says, is different: “This play goes deeper than any Lincoln piece I’ve ever done.” The play is set in 1862, when Lincoln is grieving for the recent death of his 12-year-old son. At the same time, he’s grappling with the question of freeing the nation’s four million slaves, and ultimately decides to issue the Emancipation Proclamation.

Marlena’s alter ego, Connie Passalacqua Hayman, talks to Selby about his long and varied career in this interview for Theater Mania.The Heavens Are Hung In Black, by James Still, runs through March 8.